The Tear Drop Story Woman

Synopsis

To be born female is curse enough, to be born female with an unlucky teardrop mole that presages disaster for the family is surely a special mark of the god's displeasure.

With an intensity of beauty and spirit that compels attention from the time of her childhood in the town of Luping, Mei Kwei rises to the challenge of this double misfortune as she copes with the damands and promises of three men she cannot love but must endure; Big Older Brother who is insanely possesive of her; Old Yoong who would heap upon her the entire glittering bounty of his privileged world if she would consent to be his fourth wife; and young Austin Tong who would die for her because she alone can rescue him from his tortured past. She runs from the men whom she cannot love to a man who cannot - and must not - love her back, the Catholic priest Father Francis Martin who has been sent as a missionary to Luping.

Set in Malaya in the 1950s when the country worked closely with the British, its former colonial master, to wage a bitter war against ruthless Communist guerrillas, the novel explores love's eternal quest against a background of political, cultural and religious tension. In a world where the hopes and dreams of men and wamen collide with the competing claims of duty and responsiblitiy and, most of all, with that strange, implacable force called Fate, everyone pays a high price.

About the Author

Catherine Lim grew up in Malaysia but lives and works in Singapore where she lectured in Applied Linguistics before turning before turning to writingfull time. She has published seven collections of short stories (two if which have been used as GCSE texts by Cambridge University), four novels, a book of poems and hundreds of articles. Her most recent novel The Bondmaid was published in the UK in 1997 to critical acclaim.